This article, “A Two-Handed Feint in Las Anod,” from The Somali Wire’s January 12, 2026 issue, discusses President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s visit to Las Anod, a contested city in the Sool region claimed by both Somaliland and Puntland, and the complex geopolitical situation surrounding it.
Here’s a breakdown:
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President’s Visit: Hassan Sheikh’s visit to Las Anod is meant to assert the Somali government’s control over the region, especially after Israel’s recognition of Somaliland. He’s attending the inauguration of Abdikhadir Ahmed Aw-Ali ‘Firdhiye’ as president of the North-Eastern State (NES), a new administration that is essentially a proxy.
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The “Two-Handed Feint”: The visit is described as a deceptive maneuver. While appearing nationalistic, it also facilitates the agendas of Saudi Arabia and Turkey in Somalia.
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NES Reality: The NES, despite having some governmental structures, is weak and squeezed between Somaliland and Puntland, both of whom view it with hostility.
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Puntland’s Concerns: Puntland accuses Hassan Sheikh of inciting conflict and collaborating with Turkey to establish military bases on Puntland territory. Weapons are flowing into Las Anod, allegedly from Mogadishu and backed by Turkey and China.
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Turkish Military Base: The article highlights reports of a potential Turkish military base in Las Qoray (Sanaag region) as a counter to the Israeli facility pledged in Berbera (Somaliland). This is opposed by Puntland and Somaliland, and could draw Israeli-Turkish tensions to the region.
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Al-Shabaab and Smugglers: Al-Shabaab fears a Puntland military operation (Operation Onkod). Smugglers and Houthis use the coastline near Las Qoray.
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Saudi Arabia’s Involvement: Somali Defense Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi has called on Saudi Arabia to intervene militarily against Somaliland, recalling past conflicts. Saudi Arabia is seemingly challenging the UAE’s influence in the region and is discussing potential inlets in the Gulf of Aden with Hassan Sheikh. These locations are contested.
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Consequences: The article argues that Hassan Sheikh’s actions won’t reverse the separation of Puntland from Mogadishu or Somaliland’s quest for recognition. Puntland’s withdrawal from the federation is driven by Mogadishu’s centralizing efforts.
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May Election: The article suggests Hassan Sheikh may use Somaliland’s recognition as a tool against his domestic opposition and to potentially delay the upcoming presidential election.
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Geopolitical Conflict: The article concludes that the Middle East conflict and Gulf power struggles are now impacting Somalia. The invitation of Turkey into Las Qoray could provoke a proxy conflict, and Fiqi’s request for Saudi intervention offers Somalia as a battleground in the Saudi-UAE rivalry.
The complete piece is as follows:
A Two-Handed Feint in Las Anod
By The Somali Wire Team
The stage is set for President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s long-awaited visit to Las Anod on Thursday, with the town in the Sool region bristling with the red berets of his presidential guard. Ostensibly visiting to attend the inauguration of his ally and proxy as North-Eastern State (NES) president, Abdikhadir Ahmed Aw-Ali ‘Firdhiye’, Hassan Sheikh’s repeatedly delayed visit comes in the wake of Israel’s recognition of Somaliland.
The messaging of the president’s choreographed visit is clearer than ever, signaling that it is the Somali government that controls territory within the boundaries of the 1960 Somaliland Protectorate, and it is Hassan Sheikh, not Somaliland President Abdirahman Irro nor Puntland leader Said Abdullahi Deni, who can visit the Dhulbahante-majority city. But the visit is a two-handed feint, throwing dust into the domestic air and reasserting his nationalist credentials while facilitating Riyadh and Ankara maneuvers for their own slice of the Somali peninsula. And the stormy geopolitical backdrop to the visit– which just a few months ago would have been considered an undoubted ‘win’ for nationalists– has cast a pall over the event.
As so often is the case, the optics belie a much more complex reality. The SSC-Khaatumo administration, redubbed and unconstitutionally cast as the NES last year, remains constrained within a single fractured clan enclave of the Dhulbahante. Their fellow Harti sub-clan of the Warsangeli that populate Sanaag is even more splintered, though their political and business interests have generally gravitated towards Puntland.
In turn, a visit by the president and a grand ceremony proclaiming that Firdhiye is a Federal Member State (FMS) president, akin to Deni, do not hold water, nor do they establish NES for a post-Hassan Sheikh political settlement. NES may have some of the organs of an FMS, such as a handpicked parliament, but it remains squeezed between two adversarial governments in Somaliland and Puntland, who regard the administration—and Al-Shabaab’s penetration of it—as a deeply hostile, destabilizing presence.
At a press conference on Sunday, Puntland Information Minister Mohamud Aydid Dirir accused Hassan Sheikh of inciting conflict, accusing Villa Somalia of deploying forces to Sool to wage war against Somaliland and collaborating with Ankara to establish military bases in Puntland’s territory. Even prior to Israeli recognition, weapons from Mogadishu and backed by Ankara and Beijing flooded into Las Anod in 2025, arming the host of militias affiliated with NES. Though, thankfully, violence has not erupted, the politics of Sool and Sanaag remain a tinderbox, with more fuel thrown on by Hassan Sheikh’s anticipated visit.
Yet more concerning to Puntland, though, is the emerging reports that Ankara and Mogadishu are planning to develop a military facility in Las Qoray, a peripheral fishing town in the contested Sanaag region. The latest strand of Villa Somalia’s entanglement with Ankara, the prospects of a Turkish military base in Las Qoray should be regarded as a retort to the facility pledged to Israel in Berbera as part of the Somaliland recognition deal.
But if the Turks intend to occupy Las Qoray, they will have to contend with Puntland and Somaliland, as evidenced by a Puntland military contingent recently deployed to a small settlement about 30 kilometers from Bosaaso and 70 kilometers from Las Qoray. Nor is it likely that the Warsangeli are eager to invite broader Israeli-Turkish tensions to their shores, given Tel Aviv’s eagerness to strike any facility or country that it considers a threat to its national security.
The advanced Puntland military position in Sanaag has triggered an alarmed response from Al-Shabaab and Somalilanders alike, albeit for radically different reasons. The jihadists —ensconced in the rugged Cal Madow Mountains —seem to fear the start of long-awaited Operation Onkod (Thunder), the Puntland military operation intended to dislodge them from their mountain fortress in eastern Sanaag.
Some elements of the Somaliland public, on the other hand, have understandably interpreted Puntland’s intervention as a military response to recognition, rather than as part of coordinated Hargeisa-Garowe measures. Meanwhile, smugglers and the growing Houthi presence routinely use the beachheads and coastal inlets in and around Las Qoray to ply weapons and people, and just a few kilometers back from the coastline lies the Cal Madow range. All in all, the auspices of such a base are complex.
But Ankara is not the only power muscling in on the churning politics in the New Year, with Saudi Arabia striding into view as well. Apparently buoyed by the events in Yemen and the routing of the Emirati-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), the Defense Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi has called on Riyadh to “intervene militarily, with full authority, against the Somaliland administration.” An extraordinary statement, Fiqi’s statement recalls the late 1980s, when Siyad Barre’s warplanes indiscriminately razed many towns to the ground, including Hargeisa. Invoking war and conflict with Somaliland– no matter Israel’s machinations– surely cannot be a way forward.
At this juncture, it feels improbable that Saudi Arabia would intervene against Somaliland or Israeli positions, with their particular gripe still with the UAE, albeit an ally of both. But the historic hegemon, Riyadh, is seemingly waking to the broader threat of ‘strategic encirclement’ posed by the Emirates and is now maneuvering into position regarding Somalia. Hassan Sheikh is also expected to travel to Riyadh in the coming days, with discussions reportedly already underway on two potential Saudi inlets in the Gulf of Aden.
Neither is uncontentious, with the first—Abdalkuri Island—having remained under de facto Emirati control since the collapse of the Somali state, and the second being a sliver of coast known as Sabca Raas that is constitutionally under Puntland’s authority. The deal is not yet hashed out, but it appears that Riyadh is no longer content with the Emirates running the show along the Gulf of Aden. The Saudis are also expected to lobby Villa Somalia to formally sever ties with the UAE, and further condemnation of the Emirati allies of Puntland and Jubaland is anticipated from Mogadishu.
While the president can travel to Las Anod, Hassan Sheikh cannot reverse-engineer the decoupling of Puntland from Mogadishu or Somaliland’s striving to become recognized beyond Israel. A Rubicon for Hargeisa has been crossed, now definitively ending the prospect of reunification, even if no other country has followed suit. And Puntland’s withdrawal from the federation has not been driven by Somaliland’s successes but rather by the persistent centralizing efforts of Mogadishu.
Indeed, each attempt to claw back powers or responsibilities to the Somali capital from the two littoral administrations has pushed them further away– and towards one another. So much so that Puntland, where, historically, unionist credentials were a prerequisite for any public office, has sought to kick the can down the road on responding to Israeli recognition, establishing a committee to look into the matter.
But neither should the visit to Las Anod obscure the pressing issue of the May presidential election, with the format nor the timeline still agreed. It is readily apparent that the federal president intends to wield Somaliland recognition as a cudgel both against his own domestic opposition and to likely obfuscate and delay the polls. Though the geopolitics of the Somali peninsula are now inflamed, the domestic circumstances have changed little in the past weeks, nor have the broader concerns about the threat of an Al-Shabaab seizure of Mogadishu.
Still, the war in the Middle East and geopolitical tussling of the Gulf have landed on Somalia’s shores. A month ago, the visit of the president to Las Anod would perhaps have been considered foolhardy and an attempt to frustrate both Somaliland and Puntland. Today, the invitation of the Turks into Las Qoray throws down a gauntlet to Israel, inviting the prospect of a proxy conflict in the Horn, while Fiqi’s explicit request of Riyadh to bomb Somaliland offers Somalia up as the latest battleground in the intra-Gulf struggle of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.
This article originally appeared in Sahan Research’s thrice-weekly bulletin “The Somali Wire,” Issue No. 911, on January 12, 2026.
